230917 Sermon on forgiving from the heart (Pentecost 16) September 17, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon text:

Forgiveness can be difficult. It can be complicated. If I accidentally bump into you as we are passing by each other, that’s not hard to forgive. Not all forgiveness is like that. In fact, I don’t know if that really is forgiveness. It’s more like politeness. Forgiveness is more serious.

Being polite is easier than forgiving. Since politeness is easier than forgiveness we often try to have politeness be considered a sufficient substitute for actual forgiveness. There’s a phrase that’s common, “I will forgive, but I won’t forget.” That’s like a forewarning for how you’re going to treat the person—coldly and fiercely politely. The recipient of this coldness gets the message quite clearly. He or she knows that they are not forgiven. There’s no forgiveness from the heart.

So when Jesus says at the end of our reading, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart,” we should not think that our cold avoidance of the one with whom we have our beef is sufficient. That’s not forgiveness. It also isn’t fulfilling what Jesus says at the beginning of our reading when Peter came to him with a question. Peter thought that he was being quite generous when he asked Jesus, “How many times should my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” “No,” Jesus says, “not seven times but seventy times seven.”

So how do we forgive? How do we forgive from the heart? I can’t pretend that I have some secret formula. We do have Jesus’s parable, though, and that might help if we are willing to receive instruction from him. I won’t hold my breath, though, because being willing to receive instruction particularly about forgiveness is not automatic. Here’s another phrase: “blind with rage.” A person can go blind from anger, not literally, but in the sense that the person is so angry that he or she won’t take anything else in. Don’t talk to them about forgiveness because they won’t have it. You have no idea how badly they’ve been hurt. So it’s not automatic that people will listen to Jesus’s parable, but maybe today’s the day.

Jesus’s parable is pretty straightforward. There was a man who owed a huge sum of money to the king. He couldn’t pay the debt. He was going to be sold together with his family into slavery until the debt was paid. However, because the man pleaded with the king, and because the king had pity on him, the king forgave the entire debt.

Then this same man goes out and find somebody who owes him some money. He took him by the throat and demanded repayment. This debtor said the very same words that the one who was forgiven had just said, but instead of forgiving the man he throws him into prison until he should pay back what was owed.

This was highly distressing to those who heard it. The hypocrisy of it, the cruelty of it, made them make their petitions to the king. When the king found out about it he called the man in. “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, and you couldn’t have mercy on the one who owed you?” And he threw him into prison until he should pay back the last penny.

As we consider this parable, what I’d like to convince you of is that we are all like the man whose debt was forgiven. It might seem extraordinary that he is so blind to his hypocrisy—that he can’t forgive as he has been forgiven—but that’s not that hard if you have the perspective that comes so easily to us. The perspective that comes so easily to us is always to be looking out for ourselves: How can I get ahead? How can I have more? How can I get without having to give? With this perspective the man’s debt being forgiven was a huge boon. Here he got to spend all that money, and now he doesn’t have to pay it back. Good for him!

When he left the king and found the fellow who owed him money he simply continued to be the way he always was. He continued to look out for himself. Here were some more riches he could accumulate for himself if only he could somehow get the man to pay. With the perspective we’ve been considering, we have to say, “Good for him!” He was just being a good businessman. As every good businessman knows, you have to pay as little as you possibly can, and you have to get as much as you possibly can. Maybe this man’s greed and lack of compassion was what he prided himself most on. It’s the way that he had gotten so far ahead in life, you see.

So I don’t think this fellow who was forgiven by the king was even thinking about what he was doing. He was just doing what he had always done. He’d always looked out for himself. He’d always done what was best for himself. If this fool king wants to forgive him his debt, okay. A fool and his money are soon parted. But this fellow was no fool. He knew how to get ahead in life, and it wasn’t by forgiving debts!

This way of living is extremely common. It’s the default, natural way. Lots of people think there’s nothing wrong with it. Maybe you don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It wouldn’t be hard to find some people who give lectures and write books who would argue that this way of living is good for one’s self and it’s good for society. With every last person competing for every last resource we have managed to bring about our glorious modern world with all of its abundance. Selfishness has supposedly produced this miracle. And, as well all know, everybody’s so happy these days too, right? So, according to them, we don’t need less self-centeredness, we need more of it.

But if this is the way you will live your life, then you will never forgive. You can’t forgive, you see, because forgiving is against the rule that you’ve made for yourself. The rule you’ve made for yourself is that you are only going to do what is good for you, what enriches you, what feels good for you. Forgiveness is quite different from all that. Forgiveness is costly.

Think of this king. He lost billions of dollars when he forgave the debt. That’s what this debt would be in today’s money—literally billions, not millions, billions. Such a debt would drag almost all our billionaires into the poor house. He went from being rich to poor. Think of what he could have purchased with those billions of dollars.

And the same thing is true with the fellow who was forgiven, but who didn’t want to forgive his fellow servant. That forgiveness would have been costly too. 100 denarii is probably about $20,000 in today’s money. If a person doesn’t collect on a debt like that, that hurts. It means you can’t buy what you would have otherwise like to have bought. You can’t go on a trip that you otherwise would have liked to have gone on.

But it’s not always money that we lose with forgiveness. Sometimes it’s costlier things like our pride. We like to be right. You were right, of course, with that person with whom you’ve had your beef. You’ve always been right. They’ve always been wrong. So how could you give up your claims against them? They need to give up their claims against you!

Or maybe someone has dragged you or your family down into shame. They’ve wrecked your good name. Or maybe they’ve wrecked your livelihood. Or maybe they’ve wrecked your peace and happiness. These are very serious, costly things—often irreplaceable, irreparable things.

If you live your life in such a way that you are always going to come first, it is impossible let go of such costly things. Never, ever, in a million years will you forgive—at least not from the heart. Maybe you’ll be polite, but you’ll never love them. You can’t love them because they broke your #1 commandment: You shall not harm me.

One of the most surprising things that Christianity teaches us is that there are worse things than being harmed. There are worse things than suffering. The fear of harm, the fear of suffering is at the root of so many evils like lying, greed, anger, and so on. But suffering is not the worst thing.

Our God suffered to bring about our redemption. How can anyone say that that suffering was bad? The suffering of God in our Lord Jesus Christ was the highest and holiest thing that ever was or ever shall be.

This is reflected in the lives we are given to live as Christians. Jesus has left us with a remembrance of this suffering of God in the Lord’s Supper. We are to do this Lord’s Supper “often,” Jesus says, “in remembrance of him.” In remembrance of what? Of God’s suffering. Paul says in another place, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” This sacrament is to remind us of Jesus’s death, God’s suffering.

Then, also, we are called to suffer. Jesus says, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” To deny yourself and take up your cross is connected to what we heard also today: We must forgive from the heart. That is a call to suffer. Forgiveness is costly. To reach out across the pain, not counting the cost—that is forgiveness.

I do not have the ability to make a single one of you forgive anyone. You, in fact, do not have the ability to forgive anyone—at least not really, not from the heart. These precious pearls must not be cast before swine. Only the Holy Spirit can work this. What I can do is praise forgiveness. There is nothing nearer and dearer to our God than forgiveness. In Jesus’s costly suffering and death he forgave the whole world! Forgiveness is good.

Therefore, also, suffering is good. Suffering is good when it is done for love of your neighbor. I understand how we all fear suffering. I don’t like it any more than you do. But it is good. For you to forgive those who trespass against you is beautiful. It is more beautiful than anything that money can buy.

So be courageous. To not be afraid of suffering takes courage. Dare to forgive. Dare to reach out and love. By doing so you won’t lose anything that is truly precious. You will be able to taste the true spiritual riches of our suffering, loving God.

230903 Sermon on the strangeness of Christ's cross (Pentecost 14) September 4, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Jesus said, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”

Let me begin by running a couple ideas by you. How about this idea for a marriage: Husband and wife get married. Like most married couples they thought it was going to be great. They had visions and plans in their heads. Not long after they tie the knot, however, they find out who it is that they really married. Who they married doesn’t match up at all with the ideas that they had in their head. What now? Have I made the biggest mistake of my life? How can I break free?

How’s that sound for a marriage? Sound like a good idea?

Or how about this idea for a livelihood: A young person goes and gets trained for a good job. The job requires skill and know-how. This young person is fully employed with benefits. This goes on for twenty or thirty years. Then that job is no longer necessary. Technology or globalization mean that somebody else can do the same job a lot cheaper. The person is permanently laid off. Now the young person is no longer young. Well paying jobs are not very available. Only the jobs that nobody really wants are available.

How’s that for a career? Sound good?

If these don’t sound like very good ideas to you, then maybe you can hear Jesus’s words a little differently when he describes how he was going to be king in our Gospel reading. Jesus told his disciples that he was going to go where all his worst enemies live. The big shots in Jerusalem were convinced that Jesus was a heretic. They believed that the only reason why Jesus could do all those miracles was because he was an agent of Satan. They were looking for an opportunity to get their hands on him, and Jesus said that he was going give them that opportunity. He would fall right into their hands. They would arrest him. They would put him on trial with false witnesses and a kangaroo court. They would blindfold him, punch him, and spit on him. They would kill him. On the third day he would rise.

There are Jesus’s ideas for how he would be king.

Peter can perhaps be excused for saying, “Oh, Jesus, let it not be so with you! May this never happen to you. That’s no way for the Christ to be king!”

How should the Christ be king? Lots of things could be done. The main thing is to get bigger. More members means more money, more resources. To get bigger we need to let people know what a great king Jesus is. We could take out some ads in the newspaper. That’s a little old fashioned, though. Maybe some TikTok videos. Instagram. Jesus kicking it with kids in skinny jeans. Seriously, though, we’ve got to grow. It’s only by growing that we can ever get strong enough. We have to get strong enough so that we can push out the Romans. Only when we’ve kicked out the Romans can we get Jesus installed as king.

What Jesus does is almost the opposite of all this. The movement doesn’t grow; it shrinks. He doesn’t get stronger; he gets weaker. He becomes so weak that he stumbles about. He can’t even carry his own cross anymore. Simon of Cyrene must carry it the remainder of the way.

The people at the cross are understandably baffled by Jesus’s claims: “Wait, so you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and here you are nailed to a cross? Why would God allow that? Come down from that cross, then we’ll believe you. Otherwise you don’t seem to be what you claim to be.”

When Jesus finally died, everybody knew that the movement was over and done with. The corpse, green and blue and stiff, was right there for anybody to see. How can that corpse be king? Are you going to prop that corpse up on a throne? No. Obviously the disciples were wrong. They thought that Jesus was the Christ, the king, but they were mistaken. All that’s left to do is to bury that corpse, move back to Galilee, and try to get on with life.

Realize that if Jesus wouldn’t have risen from the dead, everything that I’ve been saying to you would have been the sensible way to react to all that had happened. Peter, in fact, would have been proven right when he said, “Oh no, Jesus. Not that. You can’t do it like that.” But that’s not what happened. Jesus didn’t stay dead. That changes everything. Instead of what seems sensible being vindicated, Jesus and his words are vindicated. The thoughts of man are vain and futile. God’s thoughts prevail.

What are these thoughts of man that are now vain and futile? We’ve already spoken about them today. It would be the way we think we are going to succeed. For Jesus to be an effective king he has to be grand and glorious. The bigger the movement the more power it has. This thinking is vain and false. This is proven by what happened. At the moment of Jesus’s triumph with the cross and resurrection, the movement dwindled all the way down to exactly zero. Nobody believed in him. Popularity or numbers don’t matter when God is the one who is acting. God doesn’t need numbers or popularity.

Or take the examples with which I began. We are such idealistic creatures. We get an idea in our head of how things are supposed to go. A marriage is supposed to be like this. A career is supposed to be like this. A male body is supposed to look like this. A female body is supposed to look like this. A house is supposed to be like this. Home furnishings are supposed to be like this. A good personality is supposed to be like this. All the popular and successful people look like this.

These are all just ideas. Nobody measures up to all of them. Maybe you don’t measure up to many of them. Maybe you don’t measure up to any of them. If you don’t measure up to any of them, then you are what is called a “loser.” Being a loser sounds like it is the worst of the worst, but, you know what, let’s not be too hasty.

Do you know who the first person was to whom Jesus appeared when he rose from the dead? The very first person to whom Jesus came was Mary Magdalene. There are a few things we know about this woman. She used to be a prostitute. That means that she had sex with strangers for money. She was inhabited by seven demons, whom Jesus cast out. One demon is plenty to wreak havoc on a psyche. She had seven. Let’s not romanticize Mary Magdalene. She must have been a very, very troubled person—a “loser” you might say. And she has the honor of being the first to whom Jesus came. Why? Because Jesus loved her. He wanted to comfort her in her afflictions.

Note to whom Jesus did not appear: He did not appear to those who saw themselves as righteous, as wise, as powerful, as having the world by the tail. Jesus didn’t appear to any of those at all.

And consider what people would have thought about Jesus too. They thought that he was a loser. Maybe he was something in the past, but surely he is nothing as he hung naked, bruised, bloody, on the cross. “He saved others; he cannot save himself.” That’s what they were saying about him. “He claimed to be God’s Son. I guess God must not like people saying that they are God’s son, because look at him now. God must be punishing him.” Jesus looked like scum, a criminal, a loser.

But then we have all these sayings from the Scriptures like “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” That is a saying that means nothing other than “the loser will be winner, and the winner will be the loser.” Or here’s a related saying, “God rejects the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Or, again, a saying that is in our reading today: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will find it.”

Jesus teaches some strange things, which all hinge on whether Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead, then all those old rules go out the window. If he did not rise from the dead, then, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “We Christians are to be pitied above all others.” Our faith is vain. We are living a lie. We would be vastly better off if we would forget everything Jesus ever said, and instead ruthlessly make our own dreams come true. Maybe, if we try hard enough and never give up, then somebody will remember us.

But if Jesus has risen from the dead, and he has, then all the world’s wisdom is foolishness. The most perfect life, the life that ticks all the boxes, is an empty and lost life, estranged from God.

On the other hand, the opposite—being humbled, being humiliated—is not the worst thing. What does it mean to be humbled but to realize that you aren’t as great as you thought you were? Isn’t that just the truth? You are a fallible creature. What you should have done, you haven’t done, and what you shouldn’t have done, that’s the very thing that you’ve done. This is the truth that’s hard to see and harder to accept.

On the other hand, it’s easy to dream about what you’d like to be. It’s the easiest thing the world! What kind of marriage would you like? The best. What kind of house do you want? The best. What kind of job do you want? The best. The ideas are not even interesting. Everybody just wants to be the best!

In contrast to all this fakery, I can say that God has loved you—the real you, not the fake, ideal you. The real you is the you as you really are with all your defects, with all your unchecked boxes. Chasing dreams is supposed to make you happy. I’m not so sure. It’s not the only way to be.

Be like Mary Magdalene, that very troubled person. She was glad when she saw the Lord. She wasn’t much to look at, but Jesus loved her. Jesus loves you too.

Scripture says, “If anyone is in Christ, then that person is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!”

230813 Sermon on Peter walking on water (Pentecost 11) August 13, 2023

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Sermon manuscript:

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

Let’s begin by setting the scene. Our Gospel reading today picks up where last week’s reading left off. Last week Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. Immediately after that, as we heard in today’s reading, Jesus sent the disciples off in a boat on the sea of Galilee. Jesus went up on a mountain by himself to pray. He was praying by himself well into the night.

While Jesus was praying, the disciples were in the boat, but the wind was giving them trouble. The wind was making big waves. The wind was blowing against the boat. The wind was whistling in their ears. They were out there all night long, battling that wind. The fourth watch of the night finally came, which in our time would be somewhere between 3 AM and 6 AM.

It was at this time that Jesus came towards the disciples in the boat walking on the water. The disciples must have been very tired, given what time it was. They had to have been frustrated that their journey was not going well. When they see Jesus they don’t recognize him. They thought he was a ghost. And that’s understandable. People can’t walk on water.

So try to put yourselves in the disciples’ shoes. This was a very unpleasant, even dangerous situation. It’s dark. The wind’s howling. The waves are crashing. They’re probably trying to keep the bow of the boat into the wind so that the bow can cut through the oncoming waves instead of being swamped by them. Then, to top it all off, there’s a stinking ghost. What else can go wrong?

Jesus’s words then break into the darkness, the wind, the confusion. He says, “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.” It is good to spend a little time here on Jesus’s words. The first thing that Jesus says is, “Take heart.” That means, “Be courageous.” The disciples were in trouble. Jesus tells them to have courage.

Why should they have courage? Jesus says, “It is I.” With the words, “It is I,” certainly Jesus is telling the disciples that he is no ghost. But Jesus might also be saying something more here too. What it says in Greek is: “Ego eimi.” Maybe some of you have heard that before. “Ego” is Greek for “I.” “Eimi” is Greek for “am.” So “ego eimi” means “I am.”

What is the significance of Jesus saying, “I am”? Perhaps you recall God identifying himself to Moses at the burning bush. Moses wanted to know what name he should give to the Israelites when they ask him who sent him. God responds, “I am who I am. Tell them that ‘I am’ has sent you.” “I am” is a name for God. Here Jesus says, “I am.”

So although Jesus doesn’t say many words, the few words he does say are powerful: “Be courageous. I am. Do not be afraid.” “Be courageous because I am who I am. I am God. Do not be afraid.”

It appears that Jesus’s message hit home with Peter by his reaction, which you might say is unusual. He says to Jesus, “If it is you, Lord, then command me to come to you on the water.” Remember all the stuff that is going on around them. The wind and the waves have not stopped. The wind is howling. They were shouting just to hear one another.

Peter’s mind, however, has been taken away from what was happening around him. The cares and concerns that have kept them up all night long recede into the background of his mind. He has an audacious idea. Peter believes in the “I am.” So he has the courage to step out of that rocking and swirling boat onto the tempestuous sea.

I’d like to point out that there is an obvious alternative to Peter’s plan. The alternative would be to focus on what was going on around him. He could have said to Jesus, “Can’t you make this wind stop that’s been tormenting us all night long? Can’t you see we’re suffering!? Make it stop! We loathe this worthless sea voyage, which, by the way, you put us on.” The sensible thing would be to get the wind and the waves to stop. That’s what a responsible person would do.

The responsible person seems to be proven right, also, by what ends up happening. You know how the story goes. He ends up sinking! So a responsible person might say, “See, first things first. Get rid of the waves.” But there’s more to the story than that. Peter did end up sinking. He had to cry out: “Lord, save me!” But before that he was walking on the water and was making his way towards Jesus. Maybe if Peter had sunk like a stone the second he stepped out of the boat those responsible people would have a point, but for a time Peter believed, and it was glorious.

Now when it comes to applying what we hear in this Gospel reading to ourselves, the applications are almost innumerable. This is a very rich text and could teach us many things. But I’d like to focus just on Peter’s reaction and how we might imitate him so that something glorious might take place in our lives too.

We all, like Peter had with the wind and the waves, we all have our troubles and frustrations. If we thought hard enough we could all come up with a good long list of stuff that we’d like to have different. All of us would have minor stuff. Maybe we would have some terribly, terribly big stuff too. Maybe your life is in danger of being lost—not by wind and waves, but by disease. Perhaps more important than merely surviving, though, are all the relationships in our lives. Maybe you are estranged from someone. There’s a cold war happening in your family or in your house. We all have our cares and worries of every kind, and perhaps they are so bad we haven’t been able to make headway no matter how hard we try. It’s the fourth watch of the night. When is it ever going to end?

Then, to top it all off, Jesus can show up in a sense, similar to how he did with the disciples. What I mean is that Jesus can make himself and his will known to us, and what Jesus says is not always welcome. His thoughts on life are usually not our thoughts. How he says we should live our lives can seem impractical, impossible, otherworldly—ghostly. He tells us, for example, that we should forgive those who trespass against us. What should we do with those who have hurt us? We should do good to them and love them. Love, in general, would be Jesus’s way. Can’t go wrong with love.

To which we might sensibly respond, “Don’t you know what’s been going on with me? Don’t you know the hell I’ve been through? I’m just trying to survive. How dare you ask anything more of me?” Away with you, you ghost! You’re not here to help us. You’re just making it worse!

But Jesus doesn’t remain a ghost to the disciples, nor does he wish to remain a ghost to us. He tells us who he is so that we may believe in him. He says, “Be courageous. I am God. Do not be afraid.” Faith comes first. The life of love, especially to our enemies and to those who have hurt us, would be as impossible as walking on water if faith did not come first.

And faith in Jesus is always good and gracious. All the disciples were probably relieved to hear Jesus’s voice, but Peter did something more. He also gave up worrying about himself. You will never be harmed by believing in Jesus. But believing in Jesus will mean that the other things that are going on with you will need to be pushed to the background.

Imagine if Peter didn’t react the way he did, but responded differently. Imagine if he faintly, distantly heard Jesus say what he said, but instead of taking it to heart he would have been too busy with the boat. Look! See there. The bow is turning against the wind! The wind is going to push us sideways! Look at the wave that’s coming. It’s going to sink us! Everybody on the left row forward! Everybody on the right row backwards! Row for your lives!

Can’t you see how something like that could happen? Not only could it happen, it’s what comes naturally to us. We believe that we must solve all our own problems. How are we going to solve them? How about we start by obsessing over them? That’s what responsible people do. It’s irresponsible, in a sense, to move all thoughts to the background and focus on Jesus and his words to us. But that’s what faith does.

Faith in Christ requires us to push all kinds of important and seemingly relevant thoughts to the background. You must, for example, set aside the sins that you’ve committed. Either your sins are supreme and you should worry yourself to death about them, or Jesus is supreme.

Or how about your failures? If you’ve failed at love, failed at business, failed at life, either this is going to be the supreme thing in your life or Jesus. But maybe you’re more of an upbeat sort of person. You’ve succeeded at life. You’ve take those waves head on and sailed right through!

There’s no stopping the wind though. Death must relentlessly and ruthlessly take its prey. There’s no stopping that no matter how many waves you’ve made it through. Let’s turn that on its head, though, and say, “I’ve only got one life to live so I’m going to be glorious!” All that is still just playing around with the oars and the rigging.

By nature, with our unbelief, we can’t do anything different. We can’t help but mess around with all the things in our life. We want to decrease that long list of stuff we’d like to have different. So we pull on this and move that. Patch and mend and reinvent ourselves. Motivate, educate, reinvigorate.

Or, on the other hand—and this makes up no small number—we’re tired of all that. We sit hunched on the bench, staring at the hapless rudder and the flapping of sails.

These two ways of being seem so different from one another, but really they’re not. Whether we’re busy or whether we’ve given up—it makes no difference ultimately—the boat is doomed if Jesus is not there. “Moth and rust destroy; thieves break in and steal.” But what if there were something more important, more life-giving, outside the boat?

And there is! Jesus does not come from inside the boat, from inside this life. Jesus comes from heaven. And here’s the amazing thing: We’re safer with Jesus. Peter held on to that strange thought for quite some time as he was making his way towards Jesus. All the disciples would have been safer with Jesus than they ever were in the boat. But, boy!, is it ever hard for us to believe that. It was hard for Peter too. He looked at the wind and the waves. We’re not told this by the text, but maybe there was a huge wave coming towards him, towering way above him. He shouldn’t have doubted, but can any of us blame him? We are cut from the same cloth. “Lord, save us!”

The truth remains, though, despite how we feel: You are safer with faith in Jesus than you are in any other possible place. Jesus is the great “I am.”

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

230806 Sermon on Matthew 14:13-21 (Pentecost 10) August 6, 2023

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Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with man are possible with God.”

In our Gospel reading today we are told about an impressive miracle. There is a very large crowd. Maybe we can use our imagination to get a mental picture of this crowd. The crowd would have been about the size of all the residents of Fairmont. Our town has about 10,000 people. At the end of our reading it says that there were about 5,000 men, not counting the women and children. So if you took every last person who lives in our town, and maybe add a little bit more, then you’d have an idea of how large this crowd was.

The occasion for Jesus’s dealings with this crowd is that they heard Jesus was able to do miracles. They heard that Jesus was able to cast out demons, give hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, preach the good news to the poor, and so on. So although Jesus had taken a boat on the Sea of Galilee, to go to a deserted place to pray, the people had followed him, going great distances so that he could help them.

So, maybe we could get a picture of this in our mind’s eye: It would be like the whole town of Fairmont were to leave their homes and walk out to a deserted place. Just so that we have the same place in mind, let’s imagine all of Fairmont walking east of town on the highway until they got to the Fairmont airport. There you have a nice, big stretch of grass. The whole town is gathered out there. When Jesus comes and sees the crowd with all their needs he has compassion. He begins to heal and help the people gathered there.

It seems that this went on for many hours. The disciples can see that there are too many people and not enough time. Night was coming and the people needed to walk back that distance to get home. So they told Jesus that it was time for the town of Fairmont to walk back home. They had to have been hungry. Once they got to town they could stop at Arby’s or Taco John’s.

Jesus must have surprised them when he said, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” What could Jesus possibly be referring to? You’re out at the airport. There isn’t any food out there. There aren’t any stores out there. There’s just a bunch of grass. “You give them something to eat,” Jesus said. Ok. How?

In John’s Gospel the apostle Philip says, “Two hundred denarii wouldn’t buy enough bread so as to give each of them even just a little.” To put that into today’s terms, “$20,000 wouldn’t be enough to give them all just half a sandwich.” And that’s quite right. There’s not just the lack of available food. There’s also the lack of funding. Tens of thousands of dollars would need to be spent for even something meager.

As it turned out, though, they did have something meager. They had five loaves and two fish. When Jesus heard that they had this, he was satisfied: “That’ll work. Bring me the bread and the fish.”

Then Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. They were going to have supper. The people probably were as baffled at that idea as the disciples were. Where’s the food? Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish and he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. We are not told the words of that blessing, but this is not something unfamiliar to us. Our table prayers are blessings. Essentially a blessing is asking for God’s goodness to be present. Jesus blessed the bread and the fish.

Then the miracle happened, and it isn’t perfectly clear to me how it happened in my mind’s eye. It says that “he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.” It doesn’t sound like $50,000 worth of bread and fish suddenly showed up so that there was a mountain of provisions that were then distributed. It sounds like Jesus broke the loaves, giving pieces to the disciples, and that when they came back to Jesus he always was able to give them more to distribute.

In a way the miracle is quite humble. The actions involved are quite humble. A mountain of food doesn’t suddenly appear. There’s only breaking and giving, breaking and giving, until everyone has had more than enough. On the other hand, this miracle is arguably grander than anything that Jesus had done up to this point. Jesus had already done miracles for this individual and that individual. The feeding of the 5,000 was for a huge crowd, the whole town of Fairmont and more.

Having gone through what happened, what can we learn from this? This shows that Jesus has power and authority in his creation. We all know that it is not in the nature of bread or of fish to spontaneously multiply. In physics there is a law called the conservation of matter. The law says that if you start out with a certain amount of material, you are going to end up with the same amount of material no matter what you do to it. You might change it from one thing to another, but you can never make something out of nothing.

God, on the other hand, is well acquainted with making things out of nothing. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This means that he made them out of nothing. In fact, the laws that we have in physics or thermodynamics or what have you were created by God too. The Creator of these laws is not bound by these laws like we are.

When Jesus creates more bread and fish than what was originally there, he is making use of power and authority that belong to God alone. That which is impossible with man is possible with God. There are other passages that are applicable here too.

When Jesus rose from the dead and before he ascended into heaven the apostles met him on a mountain in Galilee. Jesus said to them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples, and so on.” The part I want to emphasize is that first part: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus.” This is also what is important with Jesus reigning and ruling at the right hand of God the Father. The right hand of God the Father is not so much a physical location. It is the position of authority, God’s right hand man, so to speak.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians talks about the extent of Jesus’s power and authority. Jesus created all things, visible and invisible. He is the creator of thrones, dominions, powers, and authorities. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the first-born from the dead so that he might be preeminent over all things.

It is good that Jesus has this power and authority. It has always been good for him to have such power and authority. God already and ordinarily uses his power and authority in such a benevolent and life-giving way. Think of how he sustains life ordinarily and regularly. He’s like clockwork. He causes the seasons. He gives us our rain. He gives us our daily bread. In his ordinary way he provides for all the needs of body and soul for not just 5,000, but for billions.

What Jesus’s miracles reveal in addition, though, is that he can also circumvent the laws that he has put in place if he should so will it. It seems to us that the laws of physics are pretty well set in stone, but Jesus can alter them. Bread and fish spontaneously multiply when Jesus so wills it. He altered the laws involved in order to feed this great crowd of people.

Jesus can also do this for us, if need be. That’s something always to keep in mind. If we should be in need we can lift our eyes to heaven and ask him for help. We should especially be confident when we pray to him for the things we know he wishes us to have. If we pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer, for example, we should have no doubt that our prayers will be heard, because he himself taught us to pray in this way and promised to hear us. I can’t be as certain about being able to feed the town of Fairmont or the other things that Jesus did. If the need was there, though, that might be a different matter, as we see miracles being done by God for his people throughout the Bible. Laws can still be circumvented today if Jesus should so will it.

But we might not experience the kinds of miracles that we hear about in the Bible. Realize that the people who lived in Bible times did not always experience the miracles you hear about in the Bible. Sometimes many generations would pass, hundreds of years, when the Bible doesn’t record even a single miracle. It’s not the miracles that are important, but the relationship we have with God that’s important.

But regardless of whether we experience the kind of miracles you hear about in the Bible you should know that greater things lie in our future—especially in the end times. The Scriptures say, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” Jesus has the power and authority to feed the 5,000. We can imagine that. You will experience much greater things—things beyond our imagining.

For example, you will experience Jesus breaking the law of death for you. Things that are dead are supposed to stay dead. That’s a law. Things that are dead do not have life, they have the opposite. The decompose and decay even further. Jesus, however, has the power and authority to give life to the dead. Scripture says that when he comes he will change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subdue all things to himself. He’s going to use his power and authority to make our worn out, crumbling, sin-infested bodies to be like his glorious, holy body.

In summary, it is right to consider Jesus’s miracle of feeding the 5,000 to be impressive. It is impressive. It was impressive to those who ate and were satisfied. They were all astounded, just as we would be too if we were gathered together with him at the airport. But better and more unusual things lie ahead for us in our relationship with Jesus. What seems to be unchangeable, inalterable, unredeemable, is not impossible with God. The dead will rise. The perishable will put on the imperishable. The mortal will put on immortality. The power that Jesus used with the 5,000 will be used in an even greater way on each of you and to your eternal benefit.

Jesus said, “The things that are impossible with man are possible with God.”

230730 Sermon on Matthew 13:44-52 (Pentecost 9) July 30, 2023

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For the past few weeks our Gospel readings have been from Matthew chapter 13. This chapter has a bunch of parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. So you heard about the kingdom of heaven being like a farmer who sows his seed so that it falls on all kinds of different soils. You heard about the kingdom of heaven being like a field that was sown with good seed, but the enemy came and sowed weed seed.

With our reading today we are at the end of this section of parables. We have three more parables about what the kingdom of heaven is like. It’s like a man who found a treasure in the field. He sells all he has so that he can buy that field. It’s like a pearl merchant who finds a pearl of great value. He sells all that he has so that he can buy the pearl. Finally the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that pulls in all kinds of different things. Only when it’s all brought to shore is the good separated from the bad.

I’d like to begin today by talking about the parable that seems the most straight-forward, which would be the second one. A pearl merchant, who travels hither and yon buying and selling pearls, finally comes upon one that he simply has to have. He liquidates his inventory. He sells his property. He empties his bank account. He buys it.

Jesus’s parables almost always have some kind of twist, something unexpected, and the thing that is unexpected here is that this is no way to run a jewelry business. Someone has said, “The business of business is business.” This fellow no longer is interested in making money. He couldn’t make money even if he wanted to. He doesn’t have anything left except this pearl which he presumably won’t sell at any price.

The only explanation for this merchant’s strange behavior is love. He loves that pearl. He loves it so much that he sells everything that he has so as to buy it. He is willing to live as a poor person, with all the deprivations that go along with having no money, because of his love.

This might seem like a harmless little story, but that’s not how people are with money and business. There is a rule seemingly come down from heaven above that a person or a business must always be making more and more money. If you aren’t always making more money, then you’re a loser. So for this fellow to check out of the money making business because of love sounds ridiculous. It sounds like something a Liberal Arts major might do. People like that are always poor.

Since this mentality is so strong and so widespread I’m a little nervous pointing out to you that you will not find even a hint of this seemingly heaven-sent rule in the Bible. Being money hungry is not a virtue in the Bible. It’s a vice.  Other things get praised in the Bible. These other things are not talked about as often in common conversation, nor are they taken very seriously. Stuff like: Love. Wisdom. Suffering. Weakness. Righteousness. Joy. Patience. Faith. Where do these things and more all come together? In the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There, in the cross of Jesus, are all good things.

Just as a great many people could be disgusted with the love that this merchant has for that stupid pearl, so also a great many people could be disgusted by the love a person might have for the cross of Christ. How’s that cross going to make you any money? Plus, it’s not even pretty like a pearl. It’s bloody, gory. And it sends a bad message to kids. Jesus just takes it. He passively suffers. There’s no get up and go. What a worthless thing to throw one’s life away for.

So it goes, though, with the kingdom of heaven. Those whom God chooses love the cross of Jesus. If you sold everything that you had so as to have the cross of Christ, you would not be disappointed. There’d be a happy ending. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who found a pearl of great price, who sold everything that he had, and bought it.

Let’s move on to the first parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” This parable is not quite as pretty, not quite as pure as the story about the pearl. The morality police know that something’s not quite right here.

First of all, what is this man doing wandering around on somebody else’s property—and with a shovel no less! This is highly improper. Then, when he finds the treasure, he doesn’t inform the landowner. He buries it someplace else so that only he knows where it is.  

He’s tricky and clever in the way that he obtains the treasure. If he would have stolen the treasure as soon as he found it, people would have wondered where he got his new-found riches. But if he buys the whole field—maybe it was rumored that there was a treasure in there—if he buys the whole field he can say, “Look, here’s that treasure that everybody’s been wondering about and it’s all mine! Sure is a good thing that I had the good sense to buy it!” Then he could spend the treasure as though it were his very own even though it really was not. He cheated.

So how is this similar to the way the kingdom of heaven works? According to a certain way of thinking, there is something “dirty,” so to speak, about our salvation, about how we are judged before God. A classic definition of justice is that each should get as each deserves. So what would each deserve if each were to be judged by God?

Depends on the person, right? Some are good. Some are bad. The good ones should be rewarded. The bad ones should be punished. The guy who owns the field should get the treasure. The guy who doesn’t own the field shouldn’t get the treasure.

But what God reveals about the way he judges is that there is a righteousness available that doesn’t depend upon how you have lived, whether you own any fields, or what you have done with your thoughts, words, and deeds. This righteousness is that available is the righteousness of Jesus—the righteousness of God himself. This treasure is given, possessed, and used by those who don’t deserve it.

There’s something of a scandal with the kingdom of heaven, with the Gospel. The scandal is that people don’t get what they deserve. Real sinners are declared by God to be righteous for Jesus’s sake. Why? Because God wants to.

This is similar to other parables of Jesus’s, such as the pharisee and the tax collector. A pharisee and a tax collector go up into the temple to pray. The Pharisee is a vastly superior human being compared to the thug of the tax collector. The pharisee thanks God that he is the way that he is. The tax collector prays, “Have mercy on me, a sinner, O Lord!” The tax collector goes to his home justified, that is, regarded by God as being righteous, rather than the pharisee.

It’s With the parable of the workers in the vineyard some workers go out first thing in the morning. Some at mid-day. Some work only one measly little hour. When it comes time to pay the workers they all get the same. Why? Because that’s what the owner of the vineyard wanted to do. He wanted to be generous. The owner says, “Can’t I do what I want with what belongs to me?”

So it is that people who truly have sinned, who have not right whatsoever to have any good thing, are given the perfect righteousness of God in Jesus.

Finally, the last parable is that the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that pulls in everything that’s in the water no matter if it good or bad. It’s when the net is drawn on shore that the good are separated from the bad. “So it will be,” Jesus says, “at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This last parable shows us the seriousness and the importance to each individual of the kingdom of heaven. It appears so often to so many that God’s Word is at best some kind of old-fashioned hobby. We sit around and come up with interpretations and applications, but it doesn’t really matter to a person’s life. What really matters about life is making money. Or feeling good about yourself. Or having a good time. People will be serious about those things, but not about the kingdom of heaven.

What this parable points out is that whether we are good or bad, righteous or unrighteous, is of the utmost importance to our continued happiness at the close of the age. Either we will be gathered together with those who are good, or we will be cast in the fiery furnace where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And how is it that we will be righteous? It isn’t by making a lot of money. It isn’t by filling our life with pleasures. It isn’t even by trying our best to be a good person and never giving up. It’s by embracing the cross of Christ. It’s by believing that it is no longer you who are living, but Christ who lives within you. The life that you now live is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you. Because he did that, you have an inexhaustible treasure. That’s how a person will be judged by God as good.

At the close of the age, apart from Christ, even the most outstanding specimen of a human being will be like a piece of trash snagged up from the murky depths. On the other hand, even the foulest sinner who believes in Jesus will be righteous with God’s own righteousness that is freely communicated to him and held to by faith.

So let us be prepared for the dragnet that will pull us all on shore. Let us take refuge in Jesus our Savior.

230702 Sermon on Matthew 10:34-42 (Pentecost 5) July 2, 2023

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In the Name of Jesus

The words that Jesus said in our Gospel reading sound strange: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace to the earth, but rather a sword. I have come to set a son against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” These words sound strange. How can we understand them?

The context is important. Matthew chapter 10, which is where our reading came from, is when Jesus sent out his apostles to preach. He told them what they should preach. They should say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” In last week’s sermon I talked about what that message meant. “Repent,” means that you should change your ways. “The kingdom of heaven drawing near” means that God is coming. He comes to reign and rule. There will be judgement. Let the sinner sin no more, for we shall all be accountable to God for what we have done.

Already you can maybe see how this message would be opposed so as to cause division. People don’t like to be criticized. If you had done something that you wanted to do, and if I were to say to you, “You shouldn’t have done that!” You’d resent it. Maybe you’d say within yourself, “Who are you to judge? What, are you one of those ‘holier than thou’ people? Mind your own business!”

It’s amazing how deeply seated this attitude is. You can see it in three year olds. You see it in twelve year olds. You see it in eighty year olds. Our sinful flesh has this proud trait in it, which hates to be humbled and put to shame. No matter how sanctified a Christian might be, this trait is always there, ready to lash out against anyone who might suggest that you’ve done anything wrong.

So already you can see how division could happen with the apostles’ message. We don’t want to change. But there is another way that Jesus’s message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” can cause even profounder divisions. It has to do with the way that we all construct meaning for our lives. Everybody has his or her own understanding of what life is all about. One might believe that life is for the purpose of accumulating wealth. Too much is never enough. Never give. Always only take.

Another might believe that what is most important about life is family. Family comes first. Often a certain look for the family is what is really meant. You have to have the perfect wedding. You have to have the perfect childhood. You have to be the perfect grandparents. Make the perfect memories, and make sure that you have the perfect pictures to prove it.

Another might believe that life is for the purpose of advancing mankind towards greatness. With continued investment in our sciences and technologies we can interface our brains with computers. Then, when our bodies wear out we can upload our consciousness to the cloud. We can live forever in some electronic form. This is but one of many such dreams that very talented people are working on.

Everybody has his or her own version of what life is for. Each seems to be tailored to what the person likes best, or is best at. These visions of what life is for are very serious. One’s view of what life is all about takes up that person’s money, labor, devotion, dreams of grandeur.

But then Christ the King comes. The kingdom of heaven draws near. And this kingdom of God claims absolute supremacy for itself. Every other view of life must bow before it. There is only one God, and there is only one Lord. The meaning of life is what you know from the Creed. God has made you and all creatures. God has redeemed you. The Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

When the kingdom of God comes, when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, then it won’t matter how advanced technology has become. It won’t matter if photo albums are filled with precious memories. It won’t matter how much wealth or how many computers and how many robots and how many gallons of oil we have managed to burn. Vastly more impressive things like the sun and the moon will even go wonky. There is no ruler, power, authority, or principality that will not be put under Jesus’s feet. Paul says every high and exalted thing must be torn down and be brought into submission to Christ. At the Name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Does this vision of what life is all about sound ruthless? It doesn’t just sound ruthless, it is ruthless. God is unbelievably serious about the 1^st commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” How often do you think about that commandment? Not too often? And yet nobody escapes this commandment. God made you. He won’t share you with others. He says, “Behold, I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” That means that he won’t share you with any other meaning that might get constructed about life.

The Lord your God is a jealous God, but let us rightly understand that jealousy. This is not the jealousy of some petty tyrant. God’s jealousy is the jealousy of a lover. The book of the Bible called Song of Songs talks about God’s love for his church. Isaiah and Paul talk about God as a great lover too. God is a lover who ruthlessly seeks out his beloved. God woos, and courts, and loves his beloved. He’s downright obsessed. You are his, and he wants you.

And to have you, he sends his only begotten Son into the flesh. His perfect Son, whom he loves, who’s perfectly loveable, this perfect treasure who is worth more 10,000 worlds all heaped together, this Son comes in such a way where he becomes sin for us. He becomes a worm and no man, scorned by mankind and despised by all the people. God gives him into death, so that by his blood you may be presented before him without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

God, this great adventurer, is not some apathetic bean-counter in the skies. God is the profoundest and activest lover there ever was. If we sold all we had so as to buy this pearl of great price, we would by no means be disappointed with what we ended up with.

But despite everything I have said to you about the greatness of God’s kingdom, there will still be those who reject this kingdom of heaven. The reasons for rejecting the kingdom of heaven vary and are as numerous as there are people. One will reject the kingdom of heaven because he wants to hold on to all of his money and property. You perhaps remember Jesus’s story of the rich man and Lazarus?

Another will reject the kingdom of heaven because she can’t stand the thought that a son or daughter is condemned through unbelief. Jesus really means it when he says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” To love the created thing or the creature more than you love the One who did the creating is not allowed.

And yet, when I say this, I am not speaking as though this is just somebody else’s problem. The first commandment is our greatest problem too. We love the created thing rather than the Creator. What pulls us away from our devotion to him? What pulls us away from church? Isn’t it either the fun that we might attain for ourselves elsewhere? Or maybe there’s a school event, a sporting event, or work. And these are very important for the meaning we want to construct for our lives.

We have our Creator’s commandments, but we don’t want to change. We’re not so sure that we have to, first of all. Maybe we can get by without needing to. Plus we’re not so sure that God is always right with what he says. He’s maybe a little old fashioned? So we, the creature, will believe and act according to our own lights. It’s plain to see that we know how to despise the kingdom of God as well as anybody?

So when we hear from Jesus that he has come, not to bring peace but a sword, we should not think that he is just talking about horrible villains in far away places who hunt down Christians. The villains are much closer to home. “Your enemies,” Jesus says, “will be those under your own roof.” Maybe you can recognize the villain that is in your own heart. We shouldn’t talk about the kingdom of God only needing to come for other people, because, you see, we’re fine. We need it for ourselves. So, as we pray so often, “Thy kingdom come.”

The kingdom of God is such that he does not set out to exclude people. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” God wants all people to repent, come to a knowledge of the truth, and be saved.

But God also isn’t going to be embarrassed if people reject him because they love other inferior things more than they love him. Nobody is going to hurt God’s feelings by rejecting him. He has better things to do than to feel sorry for people who for whatever reason hate him and his love. He is the great lover. How could any great lover be derailed from pursuing his beloved by the bitter, sour faces of onlookers?

So we have this wonderful apostolic message before us today, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” My advice to you is that you join in on this glorious romp of our Lord Jesus’s. There’s no greater adventure in the cosmos than living under him in his kingdom and serving him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Lots of people can’t see this adventure. It is thoroughly hidden now, only to be more fully revealed in the last times. But it is as real and true as Jesus’s resurrection from the dead.

But if you don’t want to join in, then there’s only sad news for you. There’s no stopping this kingdom of God, even if you rage and fume like the devil so as to kill Christians left and right. It won’t do you any good! As Luther says in A Mighty Fortress, “And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife—though these all be gone—our victory has been won. The kingdom ours remaineth.” God wins. Amen.

We stand to sing the offertory.

230625 Sermon on Matthew 10:21-33 (Pentecost 4) June 25, 2023

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“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Our Gospel reading last week, our Gospel reading this week, and the reading that you will hear next week, is all from the same section. It is from when Jesus sent out his 12 apostles. He told them what they were supposed to do. They should tell people that the kingdom of heaven had drawn near. The kingdom of heaven has at its core the word kingdom. With kingdoms there is reigning and ruling. So with the kingdom of heaven drawing near that is another way of saying that the reigning and ruling of God is near.

That could be good news or bad news depending on what you think of the reigning and ruling of God. If you want God to come and rule over everything, then that message is good news. If you don’t want God and his ways to be uppermost, then this would be like hearing that a very powerful enemy was coming to get you.

This message that the apostles were given to preach was not unprecedented. It is very similar to the message that Jesus himself preached and John the Baptist preached. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” They all said, “Repent,” which means, “Change your ways.” All people everywhere must change their ways. You must change your ways because you are not holy and perfect. God is coming.

But not everybody wants to change their ways. That’s an understatement, actually. The truth is that nobody wants to change their ways. The very reason why we have the ways that we have is because we like our ways. Nobody has to hold us down with our arms tied behind our backs so that we forget to pray. Nobody has to force us to roll our eyes at our parents. Nobody has to punish us and whip us so that we are forced to look at dirty things or gladly hear and learn dirty things with the latest dirty gossip. We do these things precisely because we want to do them. Nobody forces us. We even usually know what’s right and wrong, but that doesn’t always stop us, especially if no one is looking or if nobody will ever find out. We do what’s wrong because that is exactly what we want to do.

True Christian and apostolic preaching fights against what we want to do. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” is a declaration of war. The kingdom of heaven is opposed to all evil, no matter where it might be found. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” is the most serious declaration of war that has ever been spoken, cosmic in its proportions.

The declaration of war is so serious that Jesus even says outrageous stuff like: “Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, then come, and follow me.” Or, on another occasion he says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

The extremeness of statements like these (and there are more I could give you, by the way), the extremeness of statements like these shows how dire the situation is. Take what Jesus says about money. What good can millions or billions do you if all is coming to an end? Or take what he says about your body. What good can your eye or your other members do you if you should be cast into hell? From hell you might wish from the bottom of your heart that you had torn your eye out, that you had cut your hand off. God is coming. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

There were some more extreme statements that you heard in our Gospel reading. I’m sure you noticed them. “Brother will hand over brother. A father will hand over his child. Children will rise up against their parents so that they are killed.” Jesus says that this kind of thing is going to happen as a side effect of preaching the good news that Our Father who art in heaven’s kingdom is coming. Households will be divided. The closest social bonds will be broken.

Jesus says it. It’s all there black on white. But if we are being honest, I think this all sounds quite strange to us. Really? Families divided? People handed over to be killed? Isn’t this all too overheated? Isn’t the situation much more mundane?

I can understand folks thinking that way. It’s quite common. People don’t think that religion is very important. A myriad of things seems more important. Plus, even in churches—those places where you’d expect Christianity to be taken seriously—it isn’t too hard to find churches and preachers that promote an unserious Christianity. Don’t get to upset about anything.

And I’m not talking just about other church bodies. I’m also talking about our own circles. It’s not hard to find promoters of Christianity as a kind of side light to one’s life, as a hobby, as fundamentally optional. Their preaching can sound pretty good too. It might be a little boring, but it does at least have this saving grace: It sounds a lot more reasonable than Jesus’s teaching. No extreme statements. They don’t see preaching as a declaration of war against evil no matter where the evil might be found. For them, the customer is always right. You won’t have to quit doing what you want. You should do whatever would make you happy. After all, doesn’t the good book say God wants you to be happy? Sounds plausible enough.

But misleading people in spiritual things is the worst possible breaking of all of God’s commandments. It’s the worst because misleading people with spiritual things not only affects them in this life, but eternally. Any preacher can say easily enough that this or that is not a sin to make people happy. A church can just mimic whatever their chosen audience might want to hear, whether they might be targeting a liberal audience or a conservative audience. But let’s not forget what this is all about. Neither liberalism nor conservatism will do anything for you when you stand before God in the judgement. If a pastor says that this is that is not a sin, that you can do what you want, even though it is against God’s Law, that pastor’s reassurance won’t do anything to stave off God’s righteous judgement. You are responsible.

What’s helpful is Jesus’s preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What’s helpful is Jesus’s preaching even if his preaching sounds to you unreasonable or implausible. With Jesus’s preaching of the Gospel comes the Holy Spirit—and that’s no small matter. The Holy Spirit convinces us to believe that God is well pleased with us for Jesus’s sake. The Holy Spirit fights against our sinful flesh so that we do not always helplessly do whatever our sinful desires dictate, but we begin to live a life of righteousness. God is the one who takes hold of our will instead of being helplessly ridden by the devil from one evil to another until he rides us all the way down to his intended destination in hell.

When Jesus declares war against evil—including, especially, the evil in ourselves—this is God’s reigning and ruling. What is amazing about God’s reigning and ruling is that he doesn’t simply destroy us or obliterate us—evil though we are. He redeems us so that we may live and not die. God’s reigning and ruling is for our benefit, even as he crucifies us together with Christ. The more God takes over the better. The more that what we want is set aside, and what God wants is worked within us, the better.

God’s reigning and ruling is what is most important. It’s at the heart of the Gospel. God’s reigning and ruling is why Jesus says two times in our reading, “Do not be afraid,” even though he says stuff that probably was frightening to you if you were paying attention and believing what Jesus was saying. After all, Jesus says that divisions will take place all the way down to those who live under our own roof—and that these divisions can even be deadly. And yet Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” The only reason why a person is able not to be afraid in otherwise very frightening situations is because God is in control.

This is of great comfort if you have the courage to accept it. When the apostles went out to preach God’s declaration of war against evil, God was in control. And when they were unjustly punished and denounced as evildoers, God was in control.

This is applicable to the preaching of the Gospel that has been given to us to do in our times too. It is enough for a disciple to be like his master. So we must simply speak the things Jesus has given us to speak. What he has given us to speak might not always sound nice. What he has given us to speak might not always appear as though it is going to work. It will work, though, because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. What Jesus speaks truly is helpful. If we believe him, take up our cross and follow him, then we will find that we can stand in God’s judgement. The reigning and ruling of God will make it so.

Of all possible things that could ever possibly happen, there is nothing more profound or good than this reigning and ruling of God in the souls of those who hear Jesus speak. Eternal life breaks in to this sin-sick, loveless world with the preaching of the Gospel. If it meets opposition, so what? If it is opposed even within ourselves, by our flesh, should we really be surprised? We, who are evil, are blessed by Jesus, who is good. Do you really think that this is something that should be easy?

Jesus tells us beforehand in our reading that it won’t be, but that’s alright. God will prevail.

Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.